In the afterglow of Louisville's national championship last April, Russ Smith should have been soaking up the adulation and enjoying the accomplishments. But chances for reflection vanished quickly.

"It was probably one of the toughest times of my life," Smith said Saturday afternoon.

We knew Smith faced the presumably difficult choice of whether to stay or go. But that, it turns out, was not actually the tough part.

Even though Smith loved Louisville as much as you could possibly love a city, he was ready to chase his NBA dream. The tough part was hearing that NBA teams weren't necessarily ready to make it a reality, at least not yet. For Russ Smith, it was back to the start.

"When you look at guys that put up numbers the way I did in the tournament and the whole season and just everything I've done here," Smith said, "I thought there should be no reason why I shouldn't go in the first round."

But then U of L coach Rick Pitino told him otherwise, and the truth hurt. Smith said Pitino told him he would probably go in the draft's mid-to-late second round. He told him if he wanted to be a first-round pick, he needed to become more polished, more poised.

"As I watched film and looked at myself, and Coach P talked to me about what certain teams want and what certain people want from me, I got to see it for myself," Smith said. "And it was really humbling."

But the thing about Russ Smith is he doesn't really dwell on what could have been. He stays trained on the present and the possible. And when he realized his best option would be to return to Louisville for his senior season, he also realized that's really not a bad option at all.

Then, finally, he could exhale. He could enjoy a slice of summer. He went to the ESPY Awards and met comedian Chris Tucker and Good Morning America host Robin Roberts.

"The funniest guy I met was the Allstate guy," Smith said. "…To see him there was pretty cool."

He went to Estonia and played in the Four Nations Cup.

"That was cool," Smith said. "We used to go to this one burger place, Hesburgers. It was good."

He went back to Brooklyn to see his family, a trip that provided perhaps the most revealing moment of his summer.

"I couldn't take it," Smith said. "I left. It wasn't like Louisville. It wasn't like the Midwest. I'm used to out here now, and I like it, so I just came back here."

Louisville, Smith decided, was home. In his rush to find a place in the NBA, he hadn't stopped to consider he'd also be leaving his new home behind.

So now he's soaking up every moment.

He's interning at WHAS-TV, working local high school football games on some Friday nights. He's campaigning to become U of L's homecoming king. And he's also a preseason All-American and a co-captain of the defending national champions.

Smith wants to show NBA scouts what they have glossed over. But Pitino doesn't want him to focus too much on what's next, because that could affect what's now.

"What he's doing to himself, at times, is putting stress on himself," Pitino said. "And stress is the enemy."

Smith said it will be difficult not to think about his future, because he knows this time there will be no other choice. There will be no second home waiting to catch him if he falls. But he said thoughts of the NBA will not cloud his ability to thrive with the Cardinals.

"I'm just trying to do everything I can and make (my last year) a good one," Smith said. "It'd be nice if we could win it again; that'd be the best present."

Adam Himmelsbach also writes for The Louisville Courier-Journal, a Gannett property

Posted!

A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.

USA TODAY Sports' Scott Gleeson counts down the 68 college basketball teams that would make the NCAA tournament if March Madness started in November. Every week day, a new team is revealed.
Pool Photo, USA TODAY Sports